They're everywhere! They're everywhere! Seven squirrels, at least fifty or so blackbirds of different varieties, a dozen cardinals, mocking birds, finches, sparrows, and even a pilated woodpecker generate the constant flutter and movement in my back yard this morning. Feeders that were full are being rapidly emptied of their contents. It's enough to make your head spin watching them this morning. I had a handyman here this morning to replace some parts on my sliding glass door and he could have been done a lot sooner if he hadn't been so busy watching my backyard activity. So, --- gobble while you can guys, because   I'm not refilling feeders two days in a row. I will be glad when it gets warmer and the grackles, cowbirds, and red wing blackbirds all move on to the fields. They eat me out of house and home and they are all such bullies to each other and the rest of the birds.

Our agenda is relatively free today. I need to do some wrting on sermons and this morning I had a request from an old friend who asked me to do his father's memorial service. It won't be until late March but I do need to begin collecting my thoughts about it. His dad was one of my former Sunday school teachers, and he was a nice guy.

It is a sunny 22° out there this morning. I'm hoping that the sun will help melt some more of this ice that is on my gutters that attached to the house. They are solid ice and I even tried to break it up some yesterday with no luck. With the temperature not rising above 33 degrees though, the sun won't help much. But --- spring is now 25 days away. The entire country is waiting. Heather even had low temperatures in the 30's this week out in southern California.

My son-in-law, Gary, is getting his equipment and tools moved into his new business location. I am very excited for them and oray it works out. Starting out in business for yourself is not an easy thing to do. But, blessedly, Gary has a really good following from customers he has had while working in other garages and dealerships. I expect he will take some business away from those places. My dad was an excellent mechanic and he had many customers that would only let him do the work on their car. Some would come from a couple of hundred miles away.

Back in 1962 there was a really cute girl who used to crowd in the high school lunch line to be with her friends. I had the exceptionally important responsibility of monitoring that lunch line to prevent such grevious behavior, so, I routinely made her go to the back of the line. She really did not like me at all, but, I thought she was pretty darned cute. One Friday or Saturday night I saw her at the local youth center, a place I rarely went, and I asked her to dance --- several times. On June 16th, 1962, that same young girl had a 4 H hayride to attend and asked me to go with her, despite the fact that she thought I was a stuck up snob. It was a successful date. On Thursday, the 26th of February, I will celebrate my 49th year of marriage to that cute young girl. God does work in mysterious way because God is so good. Have a blessed day.